Alternate Reality: Red
by Celeste5502
Summary: Our heroes must face a red-head banshee that's robbing men all over Domino-or so they think, until they meet the red-cloaked being and their henchmen...Feel free to R&R!
1. Prologue: Bring Them to Me

Prologue: Bring Them to Me

It was a quiet, moonlit night in the town of Domino. Thankfully, there wasn't a single disturbance affecting the town, neither real nor supernatural. Our four heroes were slumbering quietly in their beds, unconsciously grateful for a chance to rest from their duty of protecting their town from evil. But, of course, the rest wasn't going to last for long.

Down at Domino's park, the moonlight was making the place particularly eerie. The shadows cast by the trees looked like claws reaching out to grab an unsuspecting passerby, especially when the light breeze gently shook them. The only sound which came from the entire place was the occasional tiny chirp of crickets; once it died down, there was only an ominous silence. The mystical look of the park was practically inviting magical creatures to come out and enjoy it.

All of a sudden, right in the middle of a clearing, a mysterious orb of light appeared. The orb started growing larger and larger until it became a glowing portal to elsewhere. Out of the portal came a figure wearing a red cloak which completely covered its face and body, making it impossible to tell if the figure was a man or a woman. Right behind Red-cloak was a hauntingly beautiful woman. Her long, red hair blew around her face, which had piercing green eyes and full, red lips. Her only article of clothing was a full, filmy white dress.

Red-cloak turned to the beautiful woman. "Well, miss," they said in a deep, twisted voice obviously created by a voice-scrambler, "this is their world."

The woman looked around, then whispered, "Interesting…does everyone in this world live out in the wilderness?"

"This isn't their entire world!" Red-cloak yelled in exasperation. "This is merely a park in the midst of their world. We're entering their world HERE because we need to ensure that nobody else sees us."

"Why? I thought the four heroes in this world were accustomed to mystical happenings."

"Them, yes. Anyone else from their world would freak out."

"They're the only ones with magic powers, huh?" The woman shook her head sadly. "What a miserable existence for them."

"Yes, yes, dreadful," Red-cloak said, sounding annoyed. "Now, then, this is what I need you to do: you have to go and start using that power of yours to knock as many men as you can find into unconsciousness. Then, once they're out, find those little things they've usually got in their pockets called 'wallets' and take as much of the papery stuff out as you can possibly carry-_except_, that is, if the men happen to be one of these three." Red-cloak pulled out three photographs for the woman to look at.

One was of a tri-colored hair teen with large, violet eyes; one was a blond with dark-brown eyes and a rather vacant grin on his face; and the last one was a brunette with black eyes that very slightly resembled a monkey.

The woman took the photos. "What do I do if the man is one of these three?"

Red-cloak gave a small, rather nasty smile. "Take them and bring them over here to me. Their little friends will be certain to follow; and when they do…I'll see if they're worthy of the little task I'd like them to do for me."


	2. Chapter One: Robbed

Chapter One: Robbed

Another school day at Domino High had come to a close. Save for a few teachers who'd stayed behind to catch up on some work and a couple of janitors, the school was completely empty and the hallways and classrooms in complete silence.

Except, that is, for class 2B's room, where four kids were on cleaning duty.

"Geez, why in de world did we hafta get cleanin' duty on a Friday?" Joey groaned, scrubbing the blackboard clean of all remainders of chalk.

"Calm down, Joey, it's not all that bad," Yugi commented, sweeping up dust and tiny scraps of paper from the floor into a dustpan which Téa was holding.

"Yeah, at least we're not on mop duty," Tristan said, wiping off the windows. "Then we'd be scrubbing the hallways of this entire floor for half the afternoon."

"Well, we could've been outta here in seconds if we'd just zapped de place clean."

"Joey! You know we can't do that," Téa said, dumping out the dustpan into a trash bin. "What if somebody walked in and caught us zapping around the room?"

"Besides, I think we're done," Yugi said, leaning on the broom and glancing around the classroom.

"Finally," Joey said, dropping the scrubbing brush into a bucket of soapy water.

Once the cleaning supplies had been put away, the four of them picked up their bags and starting walking down the hallway towards the exit.

"Man, what's de point of havin' dese magic powers if we can't even really use dem widdout freakin' out over somebody catchin' us?" Joey moaned.

"Joey, we're supposed to be using them to protect this world from evil, not so that we won't have to actually do some work on cleaning up the classroom," Téa said.

"Besides," Tristan said, putting one hand around Joey's neck, "you could use the exercise once in a while."

"Right, like I don't get enough of dat while I'm fightin' evil magic beings," Joey said, rolling his eyes.

All of a sudden, as they were about to walk outside of the school door, a loud, piercing shriek filled the air. However, the scream was far from an ordinary scream of shock or terror; it made everyone wince and cover their ears, and the nearby glass windows shattered into thousands of pieces.

Once the scream finally died down, Tristan yelled, "I think my hearing's shot!"

"WHAT?" Joey yelled.

"I _SAID,_ I THINK MY HEARING'S SHOT!"

"_WHAT?!"_

"What was that scream?" Yugi cried, running outside towards the sound of the shriek.

"See?!" Joey yelled as he and the others ran after Yugi. "Plenty a exercise!"

Outside, they found that one of their fellow students was lying on the grounds outside of the school, unconscious. His backpack was lying on the ground next to him, and on top of it lay an open wallet. Yugi got down onto his knees and gently shook his shoulders. "Wake up!" he said urgently.

The student slowly stirred and sat up. "What happened? Can you remember?" Yugi asked.

"Uh…well…I can remember that I was walking home when this pretty girl suddenly appeared in front of me. She opened her mouth and let out a scream and…that's the last thing that I can remember." The student looked over at his backpack and quickly picked up the wallet. "Aw, man!" he cried, sifting through it, "she took all of my yen!"

"Will you be alright?" Téa asked as the student grabbed his backpack and stood up.

"Yeah, I'll be fine," he said. He started to walk away, muttering "How could she take all of my cash?"

Once the guy was out of earshot, Yugi looked back at the other three. "A woman whose shriek can make people unconscious?"

"Hey, dat reminds me of someting…" Joey said. "Dere was an article in de paper today about guys bein' robbed all over Domino. Dey've all been knocked out by what dey said was dis one woman who apparently could scream _really_ loudly."

"Since when do you read the newspaper?" Téa asked, looking a little shocked.

Joey glared at her. "I don't do it for fun! I deliver dem for my job! I actually gotta work in order ta get myself a couple a yen, ya know!"

"Guys, I think it's time for another meeting down at Domino's docks," Yugi said. "If there's a woman out there who's screaming men into unconsciousness and stealing from them, then that's definitely something we need to take care of."

"Another crazy adventure, here we come," Tristan said, rolling his eyes.


	3. Chapter Two: Banshee

Author's note: For those of you who will be wondering, "roshambo" is the word the Japanese use to refer to the game "rock, paper, scissors".

Chapter Two: Banshee

An hour later, the four of them were standing around inside of an abandoned warehouse. Yugi wore the typical Domino High uniform, Joey had just changed his jacket to a green one, Tristan had put on a long, brown over coat, and Téa had changed her outfit entirely into a yellow shirt with puffy sleeves that was pleated at the bottom, a pink vest, blue miniskirt, and knee-high boots.

"O.K., so what do we know so far about this mysterious woman?" Yugi asked.

"Well, she's a thief, and she has a really abnormally loud scream," Tristan said.

"Hmm…it would help if we knew what she looked like…"

"Oh, yeah…When we all went home ta change I tried rememberin' some more stuff about dat article, and I could just recall dat dey had a description of de woman dat robbed dose guys," Joey cried. "Accordin' ta all of dem, she had long red hair, green eyes, and she was always wearin' dis long white dress."

"Banshee!" Téa suddenly cried, the book called _A Hero's Guide to Superpowers and the Supernatural _open in her hands.

The other three stared at her. "Uh…bless you?" Joey said.

Téa laughed. "No, no…I think that woman might be a creature called a banshee!" She turned the book around so that her friends could see it. On one page was a drawing of a beautiful woman with flowing red hair, green eyes, and full, red lips. She wore a flowing white gown that almost looked like a wedding dress. Her arms were raised and her mouth was open in a silent scream.

On the page opposite the picture, the book read:

_Banshees_

_A banshee is a creature originally from Irish folklore. Banshees are typically beautiful, feminine beings who have a tendency to wear white or grey. The Irish's banshee came to be an omen for them. When the banshee's cry filled the air, they knew that death was approaching them, and the more banshees that screamed at once, the higher the rank of the soon-to-be-deceased. In other worlds, however, the banshee may also be a deceased woman who was abandoned at the altar by her fiancé (hence the white dress). A banshee of that nature would use her cry either as a weapon of revenge against the entire male population, or as a futile attempt to somehow draw her beloved back._

The other three stared at the description for a few moments, then Joey said, "Well…at least dis banshee isn't one of dose death-predictin' ones."

"But she's still a harmful threat to the other guys of Domino," Yugi said, "and we have to stop her before anyone else gets robbed."

Téa looked back at the picture of the banshee. "I almost feel sorry for her," she said. "The poor thing was hoping to marry her beloved, and instead he just abandoned her and left her to keep on wailing for him for the rest of her life." She stared at the picture, and could swear that within the banshee's green eyes was a hint of despair."She must have been devastated…"

"Um, Téa? It's not a good idea ta start sympathizin' wit de enemy," Joey said.

Téa looked up. "Huh? Oh, right. Sorry," she said, closing the book. "So what's the plan?"

"Well," Yugi said, "if the banshee likes screaming men into unconsciousness, let's lure her towards us by giving her another one to knock out."

"Oh, man…" Joey said. "Why do I get de feeling dat one of us is gonna hafta be de bait?"

"We'll make it a fair choice," Yugi said. "We three guys can play a game of roshambo to decide."

Yugi, Joey, and Tristan gathered in a circle. The three of them held out their fists, yelled, "Roe, sham, boe!", and formed their item of choice with their hands. Yugi and Joey both chose _paa_ (paper), while Tristan chose _guu_ (rock).

"HAH! Paper beats rock! You lose!" Joey said, pointing at Tristan.

"Aw, man…" Tristan muttered. "Rock is never supposed to lose…"

That night, Tristan found himself walking down the empty streets of Domino. Every store was dark and silent, and only a small gust of wind revealed some sign of life by blowing a couple of loose papers and plastic cups across the street. Other than that, the town was practically deserted.

"This is so creepy," Tristan whispered to himself, looking around this way and that. He knew that Yugi, Joey, and Téa were somewhere near him, hiding so that the banshee would think he was alone, but without a single sign of their presence, he felt as though he was completely at the mercy of whoever came his way.

He suddenly heard a loud crash down an alleyway he was walking past. Startled, he quickly turned towards the sound and raised his hands above his head, making them glow with orange, mystic light.

Seconds later, a cat walked out of the alley carrying fish bones in its mouth. The cat glanced at Tristan for one second, then scurried off down the street with its prize.

Tristan lowered his hands and sighed with relief. "Stupid cat probably knocked over a trash bin or something…" he murmured. Continuing walking down the street, he said, "I swear, if that banshee doesn't come pretty soon-"

He was interrupted by the sudden sight of a tiny orb of white light floating down to the ground a few steps in front of him. The orb grew and took on the shape of an eerie woman with red hair, green eyes, and a long, white gown.

"The banshee," Tristan whispered, frozen to his spot in fear.

The banshee gave him an oddly sweet smile, then opened her mouth, took a deep breath-and screamed.

Yugi, Joey, and Téa, who had been soaring across the rooftops on the buildings nearby Tristan all that time, now had to cover their ears and wince at the sound of the banshee's cry. The blast of the scream shattered the nearby windows on all of the buildings, but Tristan got the worst of it. The scream left him paralyzed where he stood, without a chance to raise one hand and fire at her, and soon he crumpled to the ground, out cold.

When the banshee's shriek finally died down, the other three looked down to find Tristan lying on the ground, and the banshee floating towards him.

"This is it, guys," Yugi said. "While she's busy trying to rob him, we'll go in and-"

Before he could finish, they suddenly realized that instead of searching Tristan for money or anything, the banshee was picking up his limp body, gazing down intently at his face. She nodded to herself, then floated upwards and started soaring away.

"What de heck is she doin'?!" Joey cried.

Yugi's Millennium Puzzle glowed with a golden light, and the Pharaoh took over for him. The Pharaoh soared up into the air, crying, "We must follow her, quickly!", and took off after the banshee, with Joey and Téa not far behind him.


	4. Chapter Three: Redcloak, Styx, and Nox

Chapter Three: Red-cloak, Styx, and Nox

The three followed the banshee and Tristan across Domino all the way down to its park. The banshee soared down into a clearing, gripping Tristan tightly in her arms, while the Pharaoh, Joey, and Téa soared into the shadows of the nearby trees. They watched as the banshee eagerly looked around the clearing.

"What de heck is she waitin' for?" Joey whispered.

Suddenly, another orb of white light appeared near the banshee. The banshee turned towards the light, a look of excitement forming on her face. The white light grew until it became what appeared to be an entrance to another world. After a few moments, a figure appeared from the light. It was wearing a red cloak that covered its entire being, leaving its identity unknown.

"Well?" the figure asked with a deep, masked voice.

"I've brought one to you," the banshee said, placing Tristan at the feet of Red-cloak.

Red-cloak looked down at the limp being. It knelt down beside him and pulled three photographs out of its cloak. Red-cloak picked one of the photographs out, gazed at it for a moment, and then looked back at Tristan. "This is one of them, all right," they nodded. Red-cloak put the photos back, picked up the limp being in its arms, and turned back towards the light-filled opening.

"Wait!" the banshee called out using its loud, shrieking voice. The Pharaoh, Joey, and Téa winced at the scream.

Red-cloak turned back towards her. "Don't scream!" it chastised her. "What is it?"

"My beloved," the banshee said, returning her voice to a normal volume. "You promised you were going to bring his spirit back to me!"

"Yeaaaah, about that…" Red-cloak drawled out. It raised one hand, which started to glow with red, crackling magic. "I lied."

The magic flew out towards the banshee, hitting her directly on her right hip and making her glow with a harsh red light. The banshee shrieked again, but this time, it was in sheer terror. Once more, Pharaoh, Joey, and Téa shut their eyes and plugged their ears, wincing at the banshee's horrifying scream.

When the red magic disappeared, the three of them looked to see the banshee collapse onto the ground, its left hand clutching the injured rip hip. The banshee slowly raised its head up at Red-cloak and whispered, "I…I did all of those horrible things…I robbed all of those innocent men…I brought you one of the four heroes of this world…and you swore that in exchange you'd bring him back to me!"

The cloaked figured shrugged. "I used you. That's what evil people do, you stupid banshee."

The banshee dropped her head back down, moaning in pain.

Red-cloak turned and walked through the portal, clutching Tristan tightly in its arms.

"Tristan!" the Pharaoh cried, dashing out of the shadows. The Pharaoh jumped through the light, with Joey quickly following him. Téa ran out as well, but she tripped on a tree root and tumbled to the ground. She looked up and saw that the light-filled was slowly fading away. Without time to get up, Téa instead zapped up the _Guide_ and managed to toss it into the light right before it vanished.

The Pharaoh and Joey found themselves falling down a long, white tunnel, which appeared to be never-ending.

"Where are we goin', man?" Joey cried.

"I don't know, but be ready for whatever awaits us when we arrive!" the Pharaoh replied.

Finally, the two of them saw a dark hole at the end. Upon soaring through it, they found themselves in a huge, pitch-black room. The two of them gently floated down until their feet finally touched ground.

Almost an instant after they did so, torches suddenly lit up all along the walls of the room, filling it with an eerie glow. The room looked like an ancient chamber, with tan-colored stone statues of snakes holding the torches in their mouths, and the stone walls covered in symbols of what appeared to be some ancient language. Before the wall in front of them was a limp figure, floating in midair. He was locked into four different chains, two around his wrists and two around his ankles.

"Tristan!" the Pharaoh cried in horror.

Tristan slowly stirred. "Huh-wha-what the heck?!" he cried out, pulling at the chains which seemed to be weighted down by an unseen force.

A voice behind the Pharaoh and Joey suddenly said, "Welcome."

The two of them whipped around to find that two mysterious teens had suddenly appeared in the room. One was a black-haired guy wearing a black turtleneck, black jeans, black boots, and a long black overcoat. The other, a girl, could have been his twin sister. She had long black hair and wore a black tube top, black miniskirt, knee-high black boots, and a black leather jacket. Both of them wore dark sunglasses.

"Who de heck are you?!" Joey yelled at the two.

"I am Styx," said the guy.

"And I am Nox," said the girl. "You are the defenders of your world, are you not?"

"What if we are?" Joey said, glaring at the two.

"Let our friend go this instant!" the Pharaoh yelled, pointing back at Tristan.

The two black-clad teens grinned evilly. "We're sorry, but our masters won't let us do that," Styx said.

"We have been given specific orders from them. If you children, the defenders from your world, are able to defeat us in a battle of magical strength, then all of you will be let go," Nox said. She zapped up a metal key on a key ring and mockingly twirling it around her finger. "And that includes your little chained up friend down there. Simple enough, right?" Then she placed the key into a pocket on her leather jacket and held out her hands, letting them glow with a fierce red light. "Now then-let's brawl."

Styx held out his hands as well, which started crackling with red magic.

Angrily, the Pharaoh faced Styx and Joey faced Nox, their outlines glimmering with their respective magic colors. Then, with a loud cry, they soared into the air and commenced battling.

At first Styx tried zapping at the Pharaoh with thousands of beams of red magic, but the Pharaoh quickly placed up a force field which absorbed every magical blast. Outraged at his failure to make even a mark, Styx soared towards the Pharaoh, fists outstretched and glowing red-only to rebound off of another force field and go flying towards the wall.

Meanwhile, Joey and Nox were zapping furiously at each other with green and red magic, each one trying hard to avoid the other's beams. Finally, Nox managed to get a small beam to hit Joey's shoulder. The temporary distraction gave her a chance to soar up to him and wrap one hand around his neck. Joey gasped and tried pulling her hand off, but it held fast.

"Surprisingly strong, hmm?" she said, grinning.

"Yeah," Joey glared, his eyes turning green, "but I bet I can be stronger!"

Joey focused his shape-shifting power on his arms. They quivered and started to grow large muscles which nearly burst out of his jacket. He then yanked Nox's hand off of his throat with ease and with one punch, sent her soaring into the wall.

"Yes," the Pharaoh grinned; "OH YEAH!" Joey cried, his arms returning to normal.

However, at the moment the two black-clad teens hit the wall, a horrifying yell of pain came from below. The Pharaoh and Joey looked down and saw to their horror that the chains which bound Tristan had begun glowing with a fierce red light. The two on his wrists were yanking upwards into the air, while the two around his ankles yanked down towards the ground. "Oops-I forgot to mention one little thing…" Nox said, grinning evilly. "Every time you injure one of us, the little chains bound to your friend will yank up or down, and he'll be in pain as well. Nice way to even things out a bit, huh?"

With the Pharaoh and Joey's attention on their tortured friend, Styx and Nox had an opportunity to send rays of red magic towards them. The Pharaoh and Joey each took the blasts in the stomach and went slamming into each other's backs. The two fell down to the ground, landing with a loud THUD.

Once the two sat up, Pharaoh put up a force field around them as Styx and Nox sent more blasts their way. "This is impossible," he said. "We can't defeat them and let Tristan go through so much pain all at once."

"We've gotta get him outta dere somehow," Joey agreed.

"But look at how those chains are glowing," the Pharaoh said. "They've probably been enhanced with Styx and Nox's magic. I doubt we could simply zap or pull them off, and Nox is the only one with a key…"

Just then, something which wasn't a ray of magic landed on top of the force field and slid down it to the ground. The Pharaoh and Joey realized with a shock that it was the _Guide_, face down and open to a particular page.

Joey quickly shoved his hand out of the force field, grabbed the book, and pulled it inside. He looked at the page the book had opened to, then showed it to the Pharaoh and asked, "Ya think dis might be tryin' ta tell us someting?"

The Pharaoh looked. "Hmm…it's a spell for transferring the powers of everyday objects into human beings."

Joey blinked. "The powers of everyday objects?" he repeated. "What kinda powers would ordinary stuff have ta give?"

"Well, for instance, one could transfer the power of an oven into a human and give them the ability to conjure up flames; or, one could transfer the ability of a light bulb and give a human the power to glow; or-"

He stopped, a sudden dawn of realization coming to his eyes. "Joey, think of something that's extremely elastic!" the Pharaoh cried.

Joey looked at the Pharaoh as though he'd lost his mind. "Uh, I dunno…a rubber band, maybe?"

"Perfect!" The Pharaoh sent out a spark of blue magic which transformed into a simple, tan rubber band. He placed the rubber band into his palm, took a glance at the book, and stood up.

Turning towards Tristan, he opened his palm and started chanting in a strange language. The rubber band floated a little bit off of his palm and glowed with a strange white light; then, the glow became thousands of small white sparks which soared towards Tristan and entered his body one by one.

The rubber band dropped back into the Pharaoh's palm, then with a snap of his fingers, it vanished. He then looked up at Styx and Nox, who had been staring at the Pharaoh and what appeared to be an act of insanity on his part, and fired two blue beams at them.

When the beams hit their marks, once again the chains stretched out towards the ceiling and ground…and kept stretching…and kept stretching…until finally the top chains hit the ceiling of the chamber and the bottom ones slammed into the ground.

Tristan stared in shock at his stretched-out form. "What the-" he stammered.

"HEY! THAT'S NO FAIR!" Nox screamed, and she soared towards one of chains on Tristan's wrist.

However, before she could reach it, Tristan let his fist stretch out towards her and pounded her right in the nose. As she screamed and covered it with her hand, Tristan let his stretched hand reach into her jacket pocket, and he pulled out the metal key. He pulled his hand back and, using his newfound special ability, unlocked the four chains from around his wrists and ankles.

Free of the chains, Tristan soared out and over towards his friends. The Pharaoh released the force field from around him and Joey, who said, "Nice ta have ya back, man."

"Good to be back," Tristan grinned, letting his outline glow with an orange light.

Suddenly, a shower of red sparks soared through the walls of the chamber and transformed into a human shape. The Pharaoh, Joey, and Tristan looked up to see that it was Red-cloak.

Red cloak looked down at the three of them, then angrily turned to Styx and Nox and yelled, "Where's the fourth one?!"

Both Styx and Nox fearfully stared at Red-cloak. "What do you mean, master?" Styx said, trying to sound calm.

"There's supposed to be four of these defenders here! Where's the last one?!"

"Only three have come through the portal, master," Nox said, shivering with fright.

"Go get the fourth one, NOW!"


	5. Chapter Four: A Banshee's Tale

Chapter Four: A Banshee's Tale

While all of this had been going on, after Téa had managed to fling the _Guide_ into the light, she slowly got back up onto her feet and stared at where the glowing entrance had been. "Be careful, you guys," she said, looking extremely worried.

She suddenly heard another loud moan and turned to see the banshee had managed to sit up and was now clutching her right side in pain. Téa slowly started walking over to her, but the banshee noticed her approaching and tried to scare her away by letting out another loud scream. However, the blast had left the banshee with nearly no energy, and thus it wasn't long before she had to stop and collapse back onto the ground.

Once again, Téa slowly made her way towards the banshee, then got down onto her knees beside her. "Miss?" she said. "May I see your injury for one second?"

The banshee turned and glared at her.

"I know you think I may only have hatred for you, considering what you did to those people and my friends, but I honestly don't think you're as evil as you seemed," Téa said. She zapped up a small roll of gauze and tape. "Now if you let me, I want to help you out."

The banshee stared at her for a few moments, then slowly she realized that Téa was being entirely sincere. Slowly, the banshee turned and let Téa see the gash Red-cloak's magic had created.

Téa slowly started dressing the wound. "What's your name, miss?" Téa asked her.

"Binchi," the banshee whispered.

"You're one of the banshees that had been abandoned at the altar, right?" Téa said. "Why don't you tell me what happened?"

"I was madly in love with a man called Uwakimono," Binchi murmured. She sighed. "He was such an incredible guy…He had this long, silky brown hair, and these deep blue eyes that one could practically drown in…he was a professor at a prestigious college…he was sooo intelligent…and yet so funny, too! He was almost any girl's dream…I was enthralled when he proposed to me…but on the day of our wedding…he never showed up…I found out he'd run off with one of my so-called best friends…I was crushed…I died of a broken heart and came back as this…" Tears started flowing down her face. "I've been wandering around my own world and wailing for him for eons…when that person came up to me and said they'd reunite me with Uwakimono…I was so thrilled…all I had to do was scream and rob a few men, find one of your male team members, knock him unconscious, and bring him to them…I felt absolutely horrible about hurting them, but I would have done anything to get back together with Uwakimono…" She sobbed. "How could I have been so stupid…that creep…"

Once Binchi had finished her story, Téa had finished dressing the wound. "Actually, maybe it's a good thing that you weren't reunited with Uwakimono," she said.

"What?" the banshee whispered. "How could that be?"

"Well, think about it-if the guy had the nerve to stand you up at the altar and run off with your best friend, then maybe he wasn't such a 'perfect man' after all," Téa said. "In fact, if he had the nerve to do that to you, he might have done the same thing to your friend, and even the girl he might have left her for!"

"I-I honestly didn't consider that," the banshee said, her eyes widening.

"You're better off without the guy," Téa said, helping Binchi to her feet. "You should go on to whatever's beyond death and stop wandering around your world wailing for that jerk who abandoned you. He's not worth it."

"No-he's not!" Binchi said, a fierce determination glimmering in her eyes. "I shouldn't spend the rest of my life wailing for someone who wasn't good for me in the first place! I should just…move on!"

At that moment, a beautiful ray of golden light shone down onto Binchi. The two girls looked up and saw that the light appeared to be coming down from the sky. Binchi slowly started rising into the air. "Thank you, child," the banshee murmured. "You've helped set me free from my eternity as a wandering, wailing woman...now I can finally let myself go to a much more peaceful existence…"

Suddenly, the banshee's throat glowed with a soft pink light. A pink orb floated out and the banshee caught it in her hands.

"What's that?" Téa asked.

"It's my shrieking ability," Binchi said. "I guess I don't need it anymore, now that I'm finally moving on." She looked up at Téa, smiled, and tossed the pink orb towards her. "You take it," she said as she started transforming into golden sparks. "Use it to fight any bad guys which come your way in the future."

The pink orb soared into Téa's throat, which she clutched as it glowed with a pink light. As the light faded, Téa looked up and saw thousands of gold sparks soar into the air, then vanish along with the gold light.

Téa stared at the spot where Binchi had once stood, smiling tearfully.

Suddenly, the voice of Red-cloak filled the clearing. "Where's the fourth one?!" it cried.

"What do you mean, master?" a guy's voice replied with a false calmness.

"There's supposed to be four of these defenders here! Where's the last one?!"

"Only three have come through the portal, master," a girl's voice said, sounding as though she was shivering.

"Go get the fourth one, NOW!"

Suddenly, the orb of white light reappeared and started growing once more. Téa quickly dashed into the trees and hide within the shadows. She watched as a girl dressed entirely in black walked out of light and looked around. The girl turned and walked back through the portal, saying "There's nobody else there."

Téa quickly dashed out of her hiding place and jumped through the portal. She tumbled down a tunnel of white light and straight into the ancient chamber. The Pharaoh, Joey, and Tristan were standing on the ground, and Red-cloak, the black-clad girl, and another guy dressed entirely in black were floating in the air.

Red-cloak and the two black-clad teens stared at Téa as she came floating down to the ground. Red-cloak screamed at the girl, "Nobody else there, huh?!"

"Téa!" the three guys cried.

Téa waved at them. "Hi, guys!" she said, smiling.

"Thanks for throwing the book through the portal," Tristan said. "You saved me from torture, AND you helped me gain a special ability."

Téa frowned and looked up and down at him, seeing nothing different. "What special ability?"

She suddenly felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned around to see Tristan's hand had tapped her-except he was standing about two feet away from her. "EEK!" she yelled, jumping back from the hand.

Tristan pulled his arm back and returned it to its normal size. "THAT special ability."

Suddenly, a ray of red magic blasted straight into Téa and sent her soaring back towards the wall. The black-clad girl soared down and in front of her. "How DARE you make me look like a fool in front of my master!" she yelled, preparing to fire another beam.

The three guys held up their hands and prepared to fire beams of blue, green, and orange magic, but Téa said, "Hold on, guys-I want to show you MY special ability."

She took a deep breath-and let out a loud, ear-splitting wail. The black-clad girl's red glow faded as she covered her ears and soared as far back from Téa as she could. Red-cloak and the black-clad guy covered their ears as well, but the Pharaoh, Joey, and Tristan found themselves strangely unaffected by the shriek.

Téa finally stopped screaming and smiled.

"How did you do dat?" Joey asked.

"The banshee gave me her gift," Téa said. "She wasn't such a horrible woman after all."

Red-cloak suddenly screamed, "STYX! NOX! YOU HAVE TWO MINUTES TO TAKE THOSE BRATS DOWN, _OR ELSE_!" Red-cloak snapped their fingers, transformed into thousands of red sparks, and soared off through the wall.

The two black-clad teens looked down at the four and prepared to fire.

The Pharaoh looked at his three friends and said, "I think two of us against one of them would let us defeat them with ease, right?"

The other three nodded.

The black-clad teens fired, but the four heroes soared into the air, and the magic simply hit the ground where they stood. Pharaoh and Téa chose to take on Nox, while Joey and Tristan soared towards Styx.

Styx watched as Joey soared up in front of him, then turned around and saw Tristan floating behind him. "Feh-you two honestly think you can beat me?" he snarled.

Styx started soaring towards Joey, his fist out and glowing with fiery red magic. However, he suddenly felt two hands reach out and grab him from below his shoulders, stopping him only inches away from Joey's face.

Turning back, he saw that Tristan had stretched out his arms and grabbed him before he could make contact. Tristan gave him a wide smile, then yanked him up and sent him crashing into the wall.

Once Tristan let go of him, Styx started falling quickly, his stomach facing the ground, but he suddenly cried out, "I'm not done yet!" He slowly managed to turn himself around and prepared to soar back into the air-only to meet with a powerful, glowing green fist that pounded directly into his face.

Now out cold, Styx fell, made direct contact with the ground, and stayed there.

"You are now," Joey said, shifting his muscle-enhanced arm back into its normal state.

Nox laughed as the Pharaoh floated to her left and Téa to her right. "Like you two 'heroes' can seriously be that much of a challenge." She turned towards Téa. "That scream of yours is a joke, sister-let me show you some true power!"

Nox raised her hands up, revealing that they were crackling with red magic. She zoomed towards Téa, preparing to blast her with all of her might-

-and suddenly slammed into the wall of a force field.

Startled, Nox looked around her and saw that the Pharaoh had enclosed her within a field, preventing her from moving anywhere else. She pounded against the walls, but they held fast.

"Hey, sister!" Nox whipped around and glared at Téa. "I don't think my scream is a joke. Maybe you need to hear it again, to see how powerful it can really be."

Before Nox could respond, Téa let out another, even more deafening cry than before. Without anywhere to escape to, Nox remained directly in the scream's path, and it eventually knocked her into unconsciousness.

The Pharaoh then raised his arms and flung them down towards the ground. The force field followed his movement and went hurdling down at a fast rate. Right before it landed, the Pharaoh snapped his fingers and the field vanished, forcing Nox into a crash landing and leaving her down and out.

The four stared down at the two black-clad teens now sprawled out on the floor of the chamber. "Excellent job, everyone," the Pharaoh said.

Above them, the orb of white light returned and became a portal to the teens' own world once more. "See ya guys at home!" Joey yelled, soaring off and into the glowing light. The Pharaoh, Tristan, and Téa followed suit, and once they had gone in, the portal's entrance to the chamber slowly faded and vanished into thin air.


	6. Chapter Five: Celebration

Chapter Five: Celebration

"So, not only have we managed to stop a banshee from continuin' her little crime spree all over Domino," Joey said with his mouth full of cheeseburger, "but we've also taken down dese two magical henchmen from anodder dimension who wanted ta destroy us."

"And everyone has their own special ability now," Téa added, pausing from sipping her shake.

"All in all, a very successful adventure," Tristan finished. He then stuffed as many fries as possible into his mouth.

The four of them had re-congregated inside of the abandoned warehouse; this time, however, it was to celebrate another victory and the fact that everyone had gained their own special 'gift'. They'd used up almost every single piece of yen that they were able to cough up, and were now engorging themselves with burgers, fries, and all kinds of ice cream desserts from sundaes to shakes.

"While all of dese magical powers and victories are nice, dough," Joey said once he finally swallowed, "de best part is when we can just kick back, relax, an' forget dat we're supers who've gotta protect our dimension."

Tristan and Téa nodded in agreement. Yugi, however, murmured, "Guys, I don't think we can forget just yet."

The other three turned and looked at Yugi. He'd unwrapped a burger, but he had yet to even take a bite from it. Instead, he just stared down at it.

"We still don't know who in the world the person in the red cloak was," Yugi said. "They were the one ordering those two teens to attack us. Why would they want to destroy us so badly?" He looked up into the sky. "But I guess their motive doesn't really matter. They're still out there, somewhere…and as long as we're still around, I have no doubt that they're going to come after us again."

The other three silently nodded in agreement, recalling how Red-cloak had used the banshee to lure them in and ordered his or her henchmen to take them down.

Finally, though, Joey said, "But hey, we can worry about dat when de time comes, right? Right now, let's try ta enjoy ourselves a little, 'kay, Yug?"

Yugi looked at him and finally smiled. "Right. Let's not let all of this good food go to waste." He finally raised his burger up and took a huge bite out of it.

Téa raised her milkshake up and said, "A toast to us!"

The other three picked up their milkshakes as well, and all four of them clinked their plastic cups together. "Friends and heroes forever!" Yugi said.

"But right now," Joey laughed, "let's just make dat 'friends'," and the four dug into their feast once more.


	7. Epilogue: In the Other World

Epilogue: In the Other World…

Red-cloak, in their pure magic form of thousands of red sparks, soared through the walls of the chamber. The sparks reassumed their original shape and became the figure in the red cloak once more.

Red-cloak floated down to the floor and looked down at the battered and unconscious forms of Styx and Nox. The two of them slowly stirred and raised themselves up into sitting positions. When the two looked around and saw Red-cloak standing before them, they panicked and immediately shifted into kneeling positions.

"We're so sorry, master," Styx said, his voice quaking with fright.

"We tried to stop them, master," Nox squeaked, "but they were too strong for us."

Red-cloak merely looked down at them, not saying a word, making Styx and Nox even more afraid. Suddenly, a new voice flooded the chamber: "Ha ha! What eh glorious deh for all ev us!"

Now a shower of black sparks soared through the walls of the chamber. The shower soared down to the ground in front of the other three and rearranged itself into the form of a male teen. The teen had yellow-blond hair which fell just below his shoulders, piercing black eyes, and deeply tanned skin. He wore a black sleeveless shirt, a black leather jacket, black jeans, and black boots. A ring with a black Egyptian eye glittered on his right hand. The only article of clothing which wasn't black was a vivid red cape that was attached to his right shoulder.

"You-you are happy, my king?" Styx cried, his voice filled with both excitement and shock.

"But of course, but of course!" the teen said, laughing. "Even eht nearly your full powehs, zeh four heroes weh steel able to defeat you two, meh best and most beloved henchmen! Finally-we hev found some goody two-shoes who just meht be able to bring us what we hev been unable to get!"

"It is wonderful, isn't it?" Red-cloak said.

The tanned teen looked at Red-cloak and laughed. "For pete's sake, _mon cher_, you hev no need teh hide your identity from me!" He walked up to Red-cloak and pulled the cloak off from over their head, then removed a voice scrambler from their mouth and tossed it away. "Soon, meh beloved," he said, taking Red-cloak into his arms, "we shall not onlee rid one world of en annoyance for all ze eveel within eet, but we shall also finally hev zat which we have been waiting for! And zen, _mon cher_-ZEN…"

Red-cloak now spoke, revealing a sickly sweet, feminine voice: "The Dimension of the Gods shall be ours to rule."

The four of them laughed, filling the chamber with their horrific cheers of sick joy…


End file.
